1. See letter 644, n. 3, for this order from Tasset.

2. This last consignment but one from Tasset was probably the consignment at the end of June mentioned in letter 635. Van Gogh had received the bill for this along with the order.

3. See letter 620, n. 10, for rue de la Paix.

4. This drawing is Garden with flowers (F 1456 / JH 1537 ); see letter 657.

a. The sentence construction is ambiguous – this clause may belong with ‘gagné’ (in which case there should be a comma after ‘annee’) or with ‘il n’y perdra rien’ (subordinate).

5. Most probably Uncle Vincent, who had died shortly before; see letter 652.

6. In 1888 the average prices for rent and food in Pont-Aven were 20 and 62.50 francs respectively, so the average of 2.75 francs a day is correct. See also Dorn 1990, p. 222 (n. 73).

7. See letter 654, n. 1, for the 12 drawings for Russell.

8. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez, The fable of Arachne, c. 1657 (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado). Ill. 440 . Van Gogh probably knew this work from a reproduction. There are also etchings known by the title Women spinning by Charles Giroux and by Arthur Mayeur. See Chalcographie 1954, p. 158, no. 6483 and p. 165, no. 6635. There was a print by Milius in L’Art 4 (1878).

9. Charles Eugène Prévost, Lady with a dog (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). Ill. 2216 .

10. The old woman in the kitchen was probably the owner of the restaurant, the widow Vénissac-Canin. She was 70 in 1888. We do not know who the serving-women were; no live-in staff were registered at her address in 1886, but her 27-year-old daughter Louise was still living at home (ACA).

11. Dorn associates this passage with the painting Portrait of a woman with carnations (F 381 / JH 1355), which he believes Van Gogh painted in Arles with the girl whom he describes here as the model. R. Dorn et al., Van Gogh face to face: the portraits. Exhib. cat. Detroit (Detroit Institute of Arts) 2000, pp. 152, 253 (n. 35). However, it is more likely that the painting is from the Paris period, in which it has traditionally been placed.